EN5604 Arthurian Literature and Tradition

Instructor: Dr Catherine Nall
Term 1. To be taught at Royal Holloway, Egham on Wednesdays, 3-5pm. 

This course will centre on a study of Arthurian literature in England from Geoffrey of Monmouth to Malory’s Morte d’Arthur. It involves comparative study of texts across three centuries and at least two languages (foreign language texts may be read in translation) and examines the critical issues raised by intertextuality and the literary treatment of myth and legend. We will also investigate non-literary material (chronicles, art, political events) in order to relate developments in Arthurian literature to the changing political and cultural context.

Introductory Reading:

Vinaver, Eugene, ed., Malory: Complete Works (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971) [or later editions]

Barron, W. R. J., ed., The Arthur of the English (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2001)

Burgess, Glyn S. and Karen Pratt, eds., The Arthur of the French: The Arthurian Legend in Medieval French and Occitan Literature (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2009)

Archibald, Elizabeth and Ad Putter, eds., The Cambridge Companion to the Arthurian Legend (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009)